For the average user, Twitter is an
incredible way to share thoughts, beliefs or general updates about one’s life. It has also given a unique way for
people to break news to the world before it hits traditional news media
outlets. Many stories broke on Twitter
before they hit traditional media outlets. Whitney Houston’s death was tweeted well before the
traditional news outlets by people with connections to Whitney Houston’s staff. @AjaDiorNavy tweeted “omgg, my aunt
tiffany who work for whitney houston just found whitney houston dead in the tub
. such ashame and sad :-(” about forty minutes before traditional media.
Unfortunately, many reporters who
have relied on Twitter to break news have gotten into trouble with their
employers. When Associated Press reporters
were arrested during an Occupy Wall Street protest, the journalists broke the
news on Twitter. The Associate
Press subsequently cracked down on these reporters for breaking the news on
Twitter before submitting it to the news wire. This sparked a spirited debate between reporters on whether a
reporter was free to break their own news or if they had to route the breaking
news through their employers first.
There is no surprise that
traditional news companies are pushing back against this sort of Twitter
usage. These sorts of news
agencies are essential advertising companies. They don’t make money from telling the news – they make
money from selling advertising space on their webpages and in their newspapers. They are afraid of two things. First, they are afraid that if a
reporter breaks news on their personal twitter account, they will divert
traffic away from the websites of their parent companies. Second, they are afraid when the
reporter tweets, they are boosting their own brand rather than the company’s,
which hurts the company’s brand.
Many in the tech world say that
news companies are behaving in a reactionary fashion – that they are acting
backwards. However, I believe that
news agencies are making a valid point.
When reporters break news on their personal twitter sites, they are
taking away their employer’s opportunity to break the news. This is actually a huge blow for their
employers because they benefit from breaking news for their traffic. If the Associated Press journalists had
broken their stories on AP, they would have generated massive traffic for the
Associated Press. Instead, they
generated massive traffic for their personal twitter pages and allowed other
news agencies to write their own stories about the arrests, further reducing
the traffic the Associated Press would attract.
Many argue that, in the age of Twitter
and Facebook, waiting for an article to get written, sent in and published is a
ridiculous waste of time. I think
this claim misses the point. The
reason we rely on news agencies for news content is that we believe they
provide an unbiased and accurate description of current events, not because
they give us instantaneous news updates. Note that because of these requirements, writing good news has
always required a bit of extra time.
Even if a random person tweets about a current event (like Whitney
Houston’s death), we won’t know if it is true until a reputable news source
confirms it.
Rather than writing a 140 character
tweet, reporters should send their editors a 140 character text describing the situation. Their editors can then create a quick
article about it and post a tweet to the new source’s twitter. This process wouldn’t take more than 10
minutes. This would divert traffic
to the news company’s site and allow them to make money.
Some may wonder why it is so
important that news companies make money, but who would pay reporters if news
companies didn’t make money? In an
ideal world, news reporters would release news as soon as they could and wouldn’t
have to rely on large corporations to fact check them or pay them. Unfortunately, that is not the world we
currently live in.
Sources:
http://mashable.com/2012/02/12/whitney-houston-twitter/
http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/10-news-stories-that-broke-on-twitter-first-719532
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/08/twitter-bbc-journalists
http://www.poynter.org/latest-news/mediawire/153343/do-reporters-undermine-their-employers-scoops-by-tweeting-them-first/
http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/journalists-arrested-ap-response_b15913
No comments:
Post a Comment